German conservatives point to supporting expanded rights for same sex couples

By Agence France-Presse
Saturday, February 23, 2013 16:30 EST

The German right appears more open to expanding gay rights, with several leaders of the governing Christian Democratic Union (CDU) speaking in weekend interviews of bridging the gap betwee same sex and heterosexual couples.

Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble told the weekly news magazine Focus the government was examining the effects of a ruling Tuesday by the country’s highest court that gays in a civil partnership can adopt their partners’ adopted children.

In the ruling, “couples of the same sex were not excluded from the concept of a ‘family’ formulated in the basic law,” Schaeuble said in the Focus interview to appear Sunday.

And Volker Kauder, who heads the German parliament’s conservative faction, told the weekly Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung: “It’s clear that the Constitutional Court’s recent ruling must and will be implemented.”